Lunar Poetry Podcasts

Lunar Poetry Podcasts, an audio series of interviews, discussions and live recordings in the UK and abroad.

The Lunar Poetry Podcasts series was established in October 2014 as an audio accompaniment to Lunar Poetry Magazine. The idea for the series was a result of a number of discussions between David Turner (founder of LPP) and Paul McMenemy (founder of LPM) about the lack of critical discussion at live poetry events. The pair decided to produce three long-form conversations as a trial. The recordings with Pat Cash, a group discussion about the spoken word scene in Sweden and Helen Mort were so well received the series has continued to publish at least one episode per month since.

The podcast has run as an independent project since the summer of 2015 while keeping the Lunar name.

In July 2016, David Turner was awarded an Arts Council grant in order to further develop the series. This has seen the series move over to Soundcloud and iTunes making it more accessible and easier to download, with the grant also ensuring that all content remains free to download until September 2017.

David Turner’s main aim for the LPP series was to provide a platform for writers often ignored by established publishing outlets. The grant money has also allowed LPP to take a large step toward offering representation for writers rather than merely diversity in its guest-list. The money is now being used to pay other writers to programme individual episodes (once a month) covering topics that affect them personally. This has so far included discussions about artist’s finances, accessibility in the arts and creative writing as a therapeutic tool. It has always been fundamental to the project that those often marginalised are given the opportunity to talk while having control over the direction of the conversation.

The grant money now also provides the opportunity for LPP to travel around the UK and speak with writers about local poetry scenes. This has already included visiting Torquay and Bristol, with trips to Belfast, Glasgow and Newcastle planned for 2017. While proud of its south-east London roots the LPP series was never supposed to be London-centric and a large part of David’s ACE application focused on making LPP a nationwide project.

The series also includes interviews recorded in Cuba, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden and Turkey.